Science Fiction/Fantasy News & Links
Variety reports that Robert E. Howard’s most famous sword-swinger, Conan the Barbarian, may be coming back to the screen via New Line Pictures, mere weeks after Warner Brothers lost the rights to the Cimmerian. [report – but not link – originally from SciFi Wire]
Warming us all up for the publication off Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in less than a month, the Californian provides a short history of the boy wizard, with lots of learned quotes.
Time Magazine, also on the Harry Potter beat, talks to the “brain trust” at Scholastic – J.K. Rowling’s US publisher – about all of the security measures in place to keep the events of Deathly Hallows secret.
Onelowerlight has thrown down the gauntlet: Serenity is “not good SF” because it has too much sex and is “preachy” about things that blogger does not agree with. The sound you hear is a million browncoats screaming in unison… [via SF Signal]
Seattlest reports on a recent signing by Lois McMaster Bujold at the University Bookstore…and illustrates it with a very odd, unflattering line drawing that I suspect is meant to be Bujold. (Honestly, Lois looks much better than that.)
The UK bookstore chain Waterstone’s is giving away 1000 copies of Scott Lynch’s great swashbuckling first novel The Lies of Locke Lamora. I’m not sure if people outside the UK are eligible to win, but, hey, trying to get a free book is always worth it. [via Neth Space]
Amazon has posted a PDF of the original proposal for what turned into William Gibson’s new novel, Spook Country. Compare and contrast at your own leisure!
Kelly Link and Gavin Grant have posted the Table of Contents for their half of this year’s annual Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology – the anthology is the 20th annual; the half is the fantasy side – on the Small Beer Press Not a Journal.
John Scalzi, author of Old Man’s War and other cool novels, explains how all of Western philosophy is totally gay. Literally.
Another reply to that Guardian article I linked to yesterday: Lou Anders is thinking about “the New Sci-Fi,” and the old question of how to get more people to read it.
Finally, something to read for free online: Interzone has posted Jack Mangan’s story “The Unsolvable Deathtrap,” from their 202nd issue. [via Locus Online]
Re: Harry Potter: Yesterday's WashPost Religion page had an article on how the Potter books are a Christian allegory, apparently because there's a clash between good and evil. He likens Harry to Jesus, Dumbledore to God, and Voldemort to Satan. I think the writer probably doesn't read fantasy regularly.